Incident Score: Analysis & Impact (ARECHA1783671840)
The details regarding individual company incidents & reports gives you full view from every side.
Rankiteo Score Impact Analysis
Key Highlights From The Incident Analysis
- Timeline of Arete's Ransomware and lateral movement inside company's environment.
- Overview of affected data sets, including SSNs and PHI, and why they materially increase incident severity.
- How Rankiteo’s incident engine converts technical details into a normalized incident score.
- How this cyber incident impacts Arete Rankiteo cyber scoring and cyber rating.
- Rankiteo’s MITRE ATT&CK correlation analysis for this incident, with associated confidence level.
Full Incident Analysis Transcript
In this Rankiteo incident briefing, we review the Arete breach identified under incident ID ARECHA1783671840.
The analysis begins with a detailed overview of Arete's information like the linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/arete-advisors-inc-, the number of followers: 20433, the industry type: Computer and Network Security and the number of employees: 499 employees
After the initial compromise, the video explains how Rankiteo's incident engine converts technical details into a normalized incident score. The incident score before the incident was 754 and after the incident was 417 with a difference of -337 which is could be a good indicator of the severity and impact of the incident.
In the next step of the video, we will analyze in more details the incident and the impact it had on Arete and their customers.
A newly reported cybersecurity incident, "Former Ransomware Negotiator Sentenced for Colluding with BlackCat Operators", has drawn attention.
A former ransomware negotiator, Angelo Martino, was sentenced to 70 months in federal prison for conspiring with the BlackCat/ALPHV ransomware group to extort victims he was hired to protect.
The disruption is felt across the environment, plus an estimated financial loss of $1.2 million (extorted), $20 billion (U.S. cybercrime losses in 2023).
In response, and began remediation that includes DOJ takedown of BlackCat, decryption tool provided to victims.
The case underscores how Closed (sentencing completed), teams are taking away lessons such as Growing threat of insider collusion in cybercrime; importance of vetting cybersecurity professionals; need for stricter access controls in incident response firms, and recommending next steps like Enhance background checks for cybersecurity personnel; implement strict access controls and monitoring for sensitive client data; establish clear ethical guidelines for ransomware negotiators.
Finally, we try to match the incident with the MITRE ATT&CK framework to see if there is any correlation between the incident and the MITRE ATT&CK framework.
The MITRE ATT&CK framework is a knowledge base of techniques and sub-techniques that are used to describe the tactics and procedures of cyber adversaries. It is a powerful tool for understanding the threat landscape and for developing effective defense strategies.
MITRE ATT&CK® Correlation Analysis
Rankiteo's analysis has identified several MITRE ATT&CK tactics and techniques associated with this incident, each with varying levels of confidence based on available evidence. Under the Initial Access tactic, the analysis identified Trusted Relationship (T1199) with high confidence (90%), supported by evidence indicating exploited his trusted position by leaking confidential client negotiation details. Under the Credential Access tactic, the analysis identified Unsecured Credentials: Credentials In Files (T1552.001) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating leaked confidential client negotiation details to attackers. Under the Lateral Movement tactic, the analysis identified Use Alternate Authentication Material: Application Access Token (T1550.001) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating insider knowledge of negotiation strategies to maximize ransom payments. Under the Impact tactic, the analysis identified Data Encrypted for Impact (T1486) with high confidence (90%), supported by evidence indicating deploy BlackCat ransomware against additional U.S. victims and Financial Theft (T1657) with high confidence (90%), supported by evidence indicating successfully extorted $1.2 million in Bitcoin from one victim. Under the Exfiltration tactic, the analysis identified Exfiltration Over C2 Channel (T1041) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating leaked confidential client negotiation details to attackers. Under the Defense Evasion tactic, the analysis identified Hide Artifacts: Hidden Users (T1564.002) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating former cybersecurity professionals colluding with ransomware group. Under the Command and Control tactic, the analysis identified Proxy (T1090) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating collaborated with BlackCat/ALPHV ransomware group. These correlations help security teams understand the attack chain and develop appropriate defensive measures based on the observed tactics and techniques.
Sources & References
- Arete Rankiteo Cyber Incident Details: https://www.rankiteo.com/company/arete-advisors-inc-/incident/ARECHA1783671840
- Arete CyberSecurity Rating page: https://www.rankiteo.com/company/arete-advisors-inc-
- Arete Rankiteo Cyber Incident Blog Article: https://blog.rankiteo.com/arecha1783671840-unnamed-victim-2-unnamed-us-based-cyber-incident-response-firm-ransomware-april-2023/
- Arete CyberSecurity Score History: https://www.rankiteo.com/company/arete-advisors-inc-/history
- Arete CyberSecurity Incident Source: https://cyberpress.org/florida-ransomware-negotiator-sentenced-blackcat-attacks/
- Rankiteo A.I CyberSecurity Rating methodology: https://www.rankiteo.com/Images/rankiteo_algo.pdf
- Rankiteo TPRM Scoring methodology: https://static.rankiteo.com/model/rankiteo_tprm_methodology.pdf